It is not easy these days to see someone born in Australia but representing tiny Malta at UEFA levels. Yet, JOHN BORG is proud that he has managed to convince representatives of some of Europe’s top clubs to help the plight of the smaller clubs on the continent as he continues to represent Malta in the UEFA Club Forum, a board which directly reports to the European football body on the needs of the clubs. Today he is also the representative of the European small clubs in the Forum’s Board. For several years he has been the secretary of ambitious Premier League club Birkirkara FC who, in a relatively short period, have won all major honours in local football. Here he tells his story to Henry Brincat
John Borg, known by many in the local football fraternity as “Il-Crusher”, was just a Birkirkara FC general secretary. He was not known by many but hated ‘sportingly’ by several others.
Yet, due to Birkirkara’s superior coefficient in the UEFA rankings among local football teams taking part in European competitions, he was selected by the club to represent Malta in the European Club Forum, where, after just two years, he has also been selected by the section of the small clubs of Europe, to represent them in the board, the top committee of the Forum which directly reports to the European football body, UEFA.
It was this post which has enabled Borg to grow in stature, but he is mostly proud of the fact that on one of his initiatives in the board, the Forum has presented to UEFA a draft proposal to improve the financial plight of the smaller clubs. This should be approved by UEFA next month and local clubs, as well as the other small clubs on the continent, will be receiving, as from next season, much better returns from the Champions League solidarity payments, in some cases better as much as 90 per cent.
He said he had been one of the pioneers of the UEFA Club Forum having also attended the first meeting in August 2002 in Monaco.
“I will remember that meeting for ever. In fact, I was there with Birkirkara chairman Victor Zammit and we had no idea what it was all about. We had travelled to Milan and then by car to Monaco – a four-hour journey. We arrived just in time for the meeting, which lasted two hours, and they took us to the stadium to watch the Super Cup final between Feyenoord and Real Madrid. After the match we met Dr Joe Mifsud, the MFA president and after a discussion on Maltese football, we were heading back to Milan and Malta – a trip which lasted 36 hours in all without any sleep and food.”
He added: “Since then we have had several meetings. I am proud to say that I took an active part during the discussion stages, so much so that I was elected to the board last year, representing Europe’s smaller clubs. And it was a big satisfaction for me a few weeks ago to have convinced such top people as Karl Heinz Rummenigge of Bayern Munich, Peter Kenyon of Chelsea, Umberto Gandini of Milan, Pedro Jimenez of Real Madrid, Fernando Gomes of Porto and all the others, to show more solidarity with us (the small clubs). As from next season we will be benefiting substantially thanks to what we call the Champions League solidarity payments. They had not been changed for 14 years, but now it has been agreed that they will be revised again at the end of the 2009 season.
“I lobbied hard to reach this agreement. I also explained how difficult it was for the small clubs to take part in the competitions, sometimes even losing a lot of money just for the honour of taking part. This eventually turned the tide in our favour and now we just await UEFA’s final seal of approval next month.”
Asked to mention some memorable moments in his career, Borg said: “Birkirkara’s first title win in 1999-2000 and the first Trophy victory the following season were great achievements. When the club won the Trophy, it was our fifth attempt – we had finally managed to break that jinx as well.”
Apart from these moments, Borg says that football has provided him with a lot of satisfactions, primarily when making friends with several people and earning the respect not only of the club fans, but also from other clubs.
Topping his list of disappointments is the 2 May 1998 clash against Valletta which Birkirkara lost 2-1. “We needed just a draw to clinch our first title in front of that mammoth crowd at Ta’ Qali.”
Another major disappointment was when Birkirkara were so close to reaching the third round of the UEFA Cup. “Having beaten Lokomotiv Tbilisi in the first round, we were drawn against the famous Dinamo Moscow. We lost 1-0 in Moscow, but could only draw 0-0 in the Malta match although we had a missed chance to force extra time near the end.”
Borg recalled that during the time he served the club as its secretary, he never felt comfortable. “To tell the truth, I was pushed to be there. In fact, I never could afford to dedicate the time needed to do the job to my utmost ability. Working on a voluntary level does not help. One has to make a lot of sacrifices, even financial at times. I also did not have much time for my family, and this is one reason for having decided to resign, especially now, having to travel abroad so frequently due to the UEFA Club Forum Board post,” he said.
Borg is grateful to his wife and family. “Geraldine and the children, as well as my father, have always given me continuous support. They also suffered a lot because of my involvement but they also enjoyed some memorable moments,” he said.
He also says that despite his resignation from the post of club secretary, he will still remain loyal to Birkirkara FC. He is in fact still occupying the post of international secretary and club delegate. “I remain one of them. I am still and will remain an avid Stripes fan and I am aware that without them, there would be no football in Malta. I will always be and have always been a great supporters of Birkirkara, loyal to my “Maltese” roots,” he said.
He added he would also hail the day when Maltese national football team support will resemble that of rugby, which is second to none. “That is what makes sport such wonderful entertainment. I envy them for finding no problems in bringing over all players available. In football, there are certain restrictions which limit the movements of the clubs in this sense. If only we can copy our rugby colleagues. Then I am sure football will also show a lot of progress,” he remarked.
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John Borg – a profile
Date of birth: 6 May 1962, in Australia
Education: Primary School at St Albans North, Victoria, Australia. Secondary School at Kealba High, St Albans, Victoria and then, when his family was back in Malta – his father Victor and mother Helen had emigrated to Australia in 1960 – continued his studies at St Augustine’s College, Pieta.
Work career: After his schooldays were over, he worked for about five years on offshore oil rigs and visited several countries such as France, Italy (Sicily), Yemen, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Libya. Then he started working as an electrician before forming a company of his own – an Electrical Installation Company – in 1987.
Sporting career: He played with Green Gully Ajax, a Maltese club in Victoria, Australia, up till Under 14 level. He also played in the domestic league with this club. But he never played high-level football. Other sport he practised were Australian Rules, the No. 1 sport in Victoria and almost the number one in Australia. He also played cricket, even alongside former Australia international Alan Thomson who was his teacher at the time. These two sports form an integral part of Australian daily life.
Administrative career: The first time he was in a committee was in 1989-90. Then after Birkirkara FC lost a Trophy final 1-0 against Sliema, they were promoted to the Premier League. He was a pioneer member of a committee to form the Birkirkara FC Supporters Club. A year after he successfully contested an election for the post of Birkirkara FC secretary and from then on, he never looked back. He resigned from the post recently because of certain conflicting opinions. But there is no animosity. He still loves the club and still represents it on various boards, especially at MFA levels and in the past few years (since 2002) at UEFA level, though this is also in representation of the other local clubs.
Honours: He has never won anything either as an individual or as a team. But as an administrator, he was last year nominated for the Official of the Year contest, mostly because of his continued representation of local football clubs on the UEFA Club Forum.
Family: John is married to Geraldine. They have two sons, Glenn 18 who is and ICTS student at MCAST, and Jamie, 14, who attends De La Salle College.